Chapter 2

The teacher was taking attendance! Well, it's ironical that many notable events of my academic life have to happen when the attendance is being taken, but that's how my life is, systematic to the point of "systematically having fun"! The teacher was calling names out, and was getting extremely loud responses of "Yes ma'am". After all, class six is among the periods of life when all one knows is to pull others' legs, have fun in class, scream during attendance and enjoy the other small things of life.

There was one thing in which the class was always unanimous! There was this guy called Tej Babu in our class. Sadly for him, one couldn't help not ridiculing his name, even his close friends used to do that! His name was some sort of mantra in the class. Everyone just loved screaming his name out! Especially when the class was in some sort of trouble! Like you'll understand very soon!

So, on this particular day, as the teacher was taking attendance, a nasty smell started circulating in the room. It was pretty obvious that someone had let out a silent fart. As the effect started getting disgusting, the teacher started questioning the class about who was responsible for the smell. The class was quiet. In a deep sense of enthusiasm, and as one of the major mischief-mongers of my class, I whispered Tej Babu, and two others heard it. Soon, the word was through to the entire class. The teacher asked "Who did it?". We, the honest sincere students we were, screamed "Tej Babu", and started chanting the name out! Tej Babu, the loner, and one of the less naturally gifted guys of the class, was now almost in tears. The teacher, pulled him out by the ear, as he tried to rebutt the claim we had put forth, but his voice was too feeble to stand a chance against our chant! I remember even today, a teary Tej Babu, being pulled out of the class, with a vengeance against me in his eyes, and a face which said, that one day, he would be way cooler than me, and I would have to take the role of a sidekick and face anything dished out to me!

Little did I know that I had pushed him into a side, from which he would never be able to come back, I had corrupted the little mind of an innocent twelve year old, and I had, that day, made a change that would never be corrected, NEVER!